Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
Looking out the back yard window answered my question, “Wonder if it is raining?”. Mornings like this make me very happy we do not live in a quonset hut or any other tin roofed abode. This morning it would have sounded like a ear-splitting roar. The swimming pool was pummeled with rain drops racing to see who cold make the biggest splash!
We stayed indoors and worked on little projects.
About 11:00 AM we got ready to meet the mailman as we were expecting our tax returns…Johnny-on-the-spot, he arrived.
Did You Know? Johnny-on-the-spot describes a person who is close at hand and readily available at all times. Interestingly, the term Johnny-on-the-spot can be traced to a newspaper article published by the New York Sun in 1896, extolling the phrase as a new idiom. This article maintains that the term Johnny-on-the-spot is derived from the phrase “Johnny is always on the spot when wanted.”
In this case, Johnny is a generic term for a person. Note that the Oxford English Dictionary prefers the hyphenated form, Johnny-on-the-spot, while other dictionaries render the phrase without hyphens as in Johnny on the spot. Further note that in all cases the noun Johnny is capitalized as it is a proper name.
We shook uncontrollably as we opened the envelope, which by the way cost $2.96 to mail from Long Beach! The news was good… we get money back! OMG! Money back! Yeah for the good side! We still owe a pile of estimated taxes but we do not have to worry about that until June!
Do you hear the words “Let’s celebrate!” reverberating from Los Alamitos? Indeed you do! It is time to paint the town red, whoop it up, make whoopee, live it up, have a ball.
Decisions made… we are going to have lunch at the Yucatan Grille in Seal Beach… great grub and really nice staff.
We donned our rain gear lest we get a drop of healthy H2O on ourselves and braved the traffic for a four mile transit to dining heaven!
We sat down at a tabel as the place was full and waited for about ten minutes until a booth became available…much easier on Sue’s back. First things first, wine and a margarita!
Now that we are getting money back, I became frugal. While I normally order the shrimp diablo, I noticed it was $23! So I said to myself “Self, why not go business class?”. I did and went for the $12 burrito and a $3 taco. I am $8 ahead. All was well until the food arrived and I realized that I did myself in! Take a gander!
The world’s largest burrito! 
One supersized taco
Sometimes I want to yell at Mom and Dad as I began my meal, their words came to me…”You must eat everything on your plate, think of the poor people in China!”. I never had the courage to say “Let’s mail the leftover to them!”. I ate all of the above plus the margarita and an iced tea! To make matters worse, Sue asked if I wanted dessert…I almost barfed!
My bride, on the other hand, simply ordered a vegetarian tamale and she ended up taking some of it home. She is so very smart!
We really enjoyed the meal and watched for a break in the rain so we could head home without use of a row boat!
Random Memories: Until the age of eight or ten, early 1950’s, we had no idea what a “take-ko” was! Then all of a sudden, it took Culver City by storm. Right across the street form the old Culver Roller Rink was a Tastee-Freeze and a taco stand. On Sunday afternoons we would go by there and order a dozen taco’s for a buck… They were nice sized taco’s as I remember but remember, a hamburger in those days was $0.20 cents! Dad and I could polish off a dozen taco’s in a few minutes! The good old days.
We got some bad news earlier in the week and that was a newspaper article reporting the Petroleum Club was sold…our topper’s Dance Club venue will soon be gone! We had a great deal there dancing nine months a year, second Friday of the month with the summer off for $85/couple.
Sue and I took it upon ourselves to go to the GM at Old Ranch and explain what had happened hoping they could perhaps get us a deal. We might have to use the “sky room” but it is used very little now. The GM is going to see what he can do and get back to us…we are hoping that between the good PR, the change to get some social members to join us for dances that we can have a “permanent” venue at Old Ranch for the next twenty years!
We returned home, the house keepers are gone and we watched TV and make the tookies! I must leave you with a thought for the evening…
It is past midnight now and I am heading for the sack…Sue already crashed. It is Valentines Day and we plan to celebrate with the Roberts, Kuhn’s, and Brander’s. We will miss the Zaitz but they are sailing on a week long cruise celebrating 40 years of marriage.
Good night all and BTW, it is raining quite hard at this time (12:41 AM)
